Making a PVC dolly this weekend...

Where did you guys buy your skate wheels, and how much is the average price? We are going to start building a dolly soon and are trying to get things figured out.
 
Hi had a quick question for those of you who have made these DIY dollys already... Do you know how much weight the PVC pipe/wheels can hold? (I'm 6'2" and tip the scales at 250lbs) and how long of a track can you usually put together?

Cheers,

Ryan
 
I am sure it will be fine; you an use thick gauge PVC or even the metal piping if you are concerned or have problems. Right now we have 30' of track in Three 10' sections. If you have the running space you can go indefinatley. To connect tract we have sanded down the ends somewhat, just enough to squeeze on and off the ends.

For your size, I would consider using a 16 wheel set-up.
 
PDX_DVX said:
Where did you guys buy your skate wheels, and how much is the average price? We are going to start building a dolly soon and are trying to get things figured out.
Click to expand...

Some people are using some fairly cheap wheels; Wal MArt Skateboards for $10.00 for example....

We used wheels form a skate shop; altogether it was $75.00 for wheels and bearings (They even put the bearings onfor us). This is for 16 wheels and bearings; almost $5.00 per
 
Thanks! Do you happen to have a picture of how your track connects? I'm having trouble picturing it in my head. I have access to a huge studio here in the college so I'd like to make one as long as yours if not longer. ;-)

Cheers,

Ryan
 
I used galvanized threaded nipples to connect mine. What size you use would depend on the size of the pipe. PVC pipe can take a lot of weight. I'm 6'2", about 190 lbs. I have problems with my dolly flexing a bit, but never the pipe.

You can also look into galvanized pipe, or metal conduit. It's not as flexible (which can be good or bad, depending), but it's a bit more expensive.
 
Ryan Izzard said:
Thanks! Do you happen to have a picture of how your track connects? I'm having trouble picturing it in my head. I have access to a huge studio here in the college so I'd like to make one as long as yours if not longer. ;-)

Cheers,

Ryan
Click to expand...

I do not have any pictures of the pipe but...

You can but 10' sections frome Lowes or Home Depot for next to nothing; for every length you want to connect, just take some hard grit sandpaper and sand the edges down until it fits. They slide on and off and it makes transport farily simple.
 
If you buy two different diameters PVC conduit pipes (I think I have 1 1/4" and 3/4"), you can cut connectors from the smaller diameter and glue it into one end. They don't fit snuggly, but one or two wraps of duct tape around the connector pipe will help.

Yeah - no pics here, either. Just too damn busy... :(
 
John...I'm a little confused myself about how your method works. You sand down the edges, but how do they stay connected?
 
vjbrennan said:
...but how do they stay connected?
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I think he's talking about sanding the adjacent pipes on a very narrow angle (one outside, one inside), so they sort of slide on each other (I am thinking hard of analogy that wouldn't be... ehm.... never mind :engel017: ).

I thought about doing that, too, but then I got concerned that the pipes might break easily if you bend them... hence the connectors.
 
I am sorry for not being clearer; sometimes you assume everyone knows what you are talking about; and we all know what happens when you assume:


pvctrack4uf.jpg
 
Hey John, just a question, why wouldn't you use PVC glue and permanently mount the dowels in one set of track. I would think that would make setup and tear down easier?

Matt
 
We did think of this initially but decided it's really not an issue of tear down nor is it a time consuming event. We just keep the tracks bundled togther and the dowels in a bucket. For the end tracks we use Caps that slide on (to prevent dolly from rolling off) so the idea of having permanent dowels inserted would prevent this.
 
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